WEDNESDAY, APRIL 26, 2012 >>>

1. The synthesizer is a powerful tool that has suffered much abuse since its entrance into the pop world. Cheese-doodling, lipstick-wearing hairspray bands of the '80s are to blame for the synth's lowly place among "real" instruments like guitars and snare drums. But Stepkid, a.k.a Benjamin Tyler from Portland, Ore., has reclaimed the keyboard's unique ability to create otherworldly audio on his new release, Cosmonauts. The drummer has crafted his Stepkid from a strange musical universe that encompasses the paranormal, mythology and both outer and inner space. His output feels like a musical battle between good and evil, an electronic, synthesized dance night for Rod Serling. Read the Weekly Volcano's Q&A with Stepkid on its blog, Spew, then catch him at Le Voyeur at 10 p.m.

2. Mayor Marilyn Strickland and Erik Hanberg, chair of the Tacoma Reads Together committee, will discuss this year's choice, Shoeless Joe by W.P. Kinsella, at 7 p.m. inside King's Books. The conversation will focus on pursuing one's dreams, faith, and baseball as America's national pastime.

3. Many things go well with beer: Pretzels. Football. Your mother-in-law away on an extended cruise. You know what else goes great with beer? Tacos and tunes. Every Wednesday night Tacoma's Lucky Silver Tavern has $1 tacos and $1 plates of tater tots, not to mention a full docket of karaoke songs. Chugging beer, pounding beef tacos and belting out some Fleetwood Mac - now that's a Wednesday night.

4. Hell's Kitchen hosts the Asian Hip Hop Summit featuring the Yellow Boyz, Lyricks, Smokes, Eetree, Lok Skywalker and Shao Sosa beginning at 8 p.m.

5. Want to get into the habit of doodling dudes? Tonight at 8:30 p.m. The Mix hosts live body painting giving Tacoma's creative community an opportunity to socialize, sip and scribble. Most succinctly described as figure-drawing sessions with a tarot readings twist, the sessions are open to the public, as long as you're of drinking age. Oh, there will be drinks.

LINK: More arts and entertainment events in the South Sound

LINK: Live music and DJs in the South Sound

LINK: South Sound happy hours

TUESDAY, APRIL 24, 2012 >>>

1. The Diversity Film Festival continues at The Grand Cinema with each film a meditation on the theme of cultural diversity. The concept began a few miles (and years) away from The Grand, at Tacoma Community College. Dr. Scott Earle, a TCC English and Humanities instructor since 1999, along with fellow teachers and staff, has hosted on-campus film screenings of this sort for some time. A suggestion was made to Earle and his colleagues in late 2010 to graduate their young program - let it leave the classroom and test its wings in the community. Today at 2 and 6:30 p.m., the Grand will screen Scheherazade, Tell Me A Story, which playfully yet bitingly evokes the titular Arabian Nights fabulist in contemporary Egypt.

2. Tacoma Restaurant Week continues through Thursday offering diners a $25 three-course dinner menu and optional $15 three-course lunch at 25 participating area restaurants. For a list of participating restaurants, and their phone numbers for reservations, click here.

3. Taking cues from early hardcore, as well as perennial punk from the '80s, Portland's Autistic Youth make driving, anthemic stuff that'll clear up your sinuses. Songs rush by in delirious two-minute bursts of group cheering and insistent drumming. The band will be joined at 6 p.m. inside Tahoma Tea & Co. by a stupid good assembly of punk acts from all over: the frantic Youth Avoiders from France, Oakland's chunky and melodic Acid Fast, rising punk locals Snak Pak, and fellow Tacoman punks Criminal Code, who will be leaving on tour following the show. 

4. The Choir of the West returns from its tour to Oregon with 10 more ways to order coffee and a bunch of varied choral work, which it will present at 8 p.m. inside Lagerquist Concert Hall.

5. The guttural growl and the howling vox of Author & Punisher's post industrial robotic doom metal will fill The New Frontier Lounge at 9 p.m. Taurus and Helms alee will also join the fun.

LINK: More arts and entertainment events in the South Sound

LINK: Live music and DJs in the South Sound

LINK: South Sound happy hours

ONLINE CHATTER >>>

Today's comment of the day comes from our own Rev. Adam McKinney who became excited after seeing the 2012 Squeak and Squawk Music Festival video Kris Crews produced.

Rev. McKinney writes,

Please ignore the extremely tired, rambling guy at the beginning of the video. That montage at the end gets me so pumped. I just want to go back and experience it all again. Can't wait for SQSQ 2013.

ADJUST YOUR WEDNESDAY NIGHT >>>

The synthesizer is a powerful tool that has suffered much abuse since its entrance into the pop world. Cheese-doodling, lipstick-wearing hairspray bands of the '80s are to blame for the synth's lowly place among "real" instruments like guitars and snare drums. But Stepkid, a.k.a Benjamin Tyler from Portland, Ore., has reclaimed the keyboard's unique ability to create otherworldly audio on his new release, Cosmonauts. The drummer has crafted his Stepkid from a strange musical universe that encompasses the paranormal, mythology and both outer and inner space. His output feels like a musical battle between good and evil, an electronic, synthesized dance night for Rod Serling.

We caught up with Tyler before his show Wednesday at Le Voyeur in downtown Olympia.

WEEKLY VOLCANO: What is the equipment of your choice?

BENJAMIN TYLER: I use soft synths in Ableton a lot. Sawer is my favorite because it has a lot of grit to it and isn't as shiny and pristine as a lot of other soft synths.  My favorite instrument however is an antique drum synthesizer called the Syndrum. It's the weird blips and boops of this machine that gives Cosmonaut its retro sci-fi sound. 

VOLCANO: Do you have visuals when you perform live?

TYLER: I've been talking to the guy who made a music video for machines recently about busting out the huge crazy robots we used for the video for a live show. We were thinking of making a rig so they could dance around weirdly. Hopefully this will come about, but as of right now, I try not to take too long to set up when I play live and since I'm a one-man band I can't make the visuals work yet. However, anyone who wants to add some cool visuals props or bring a fog machine is welcome to bust them out at a Stepkid show!

VOLCANO: Did you grow up with retro science fiction toys crammed in every nook and cranny in your bedroom?

Read more...

MONDAY, APRIL 23, 2012 >>>

1. Every Monday at 8:30 p.m. inside Magoo's Annex DJ Melodica hosts the Monday Showcase - a night of guests DJs and live bands. Tonight, guest DJ Darren Selector will spin his garage tunes in between sets by Umber Sleeping.

2. We often hear the cliché about "taking things to the next level." But what does that mean exactly? Would we recognize the next level if we saw it? Maybe so. Beginning today, the City of Tacoma would like you to take your homestead to the next level, and by that we mean off the Sanford & Son Junkyard Spitting Image Tour before someone at City Safety has "The big one." The City won't send over colorful fellas from the Bravo network, but it has developed a yard load of awesome free workshops and events to help you improve your home and yard during its Tacoma Neighborhood Makeover Week April 23-28. 

3. The Tacoma School District needs to know your thoughts on budget, services and programs. It asks you to attend a 6 p.m. meeting at First Creek Middle School and participate in an interactive polling session where you will use an individual handheld electronic device - like a TV remote control - to vote on and prioritize more than 60 district programs and services.

4. Tacoma Food Co-op invites the public to its screening of Food Matters at 7 p.m. in Rausch Auditorium on the campus of the University of Puget Sound. The focus of the documentary is in helping society rethink the belief systems fed to people by America's modern medical and health care establishments. The interviewees point out that not every problem requires costly, major medical attention and reveal many alternative ways that can be more effective, more economical, less harmful and less invasive than conventional medical treatments.

5. In Jon Wells' new book Shipwrecked: A People's History of the Seattle Mariners he asserts that the reasons the Mariners haven't reached the World Series are poor management and short-sighted ownership, despite the fact that they have three first-ballot Hall of Fame players. Hear his thoughts live at 7 p.m. inside the Olympic Room at the Tacoma Public Library Main Branch.

LINK: More arts and entertainment events in the South Sound

LINK: Live music and DJs in the South Sound

LINK: South Sound happy hours

LOOKING BACK >>>

The 2012 Squeak and Squawk Music Festival was a blast! The Weekly Volcano got its groove on to the eclectic beats of Oberhofer, Pond, A Leaf, Santee, The Shivas, The Riffbrokers and many other indie pop and rock bands at this year's festival produced by Jena Stedtler and our own music scribe Rev. Adam McKinney. Tacoma filmmaker Kris Crews shot a buttload of video during the festival for the Weekly Volcano. Crews' first 2012 Squeak and Squawk video capturing the glory that is The Back Pockets is posted here. Over the next month or so, Crews will post additional video footage of individual band performances on this blog. In the meantime, here's a little ditty he produced that no doubt will be used to promote next year's Squeak and Squawk.

SUNDAY, APRIL 22, 2012 >>>

1. Traditionally, a wayzgoose was a party thrown by a master printer. Now that we are in the age of Kindles and Nooks, the term just means a party thrown by or for printers and literary sorts. Tacoma's Wayzgoose is headed up by King's Books owner sweet pea Flaherty and letterpress printer Jessica Spring. Local printing artists show off their wares and set up hands-on activities for all to try from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. at King's Books. Be prepared to take home a sample of something you (or your kids) made right onsite! Read Kristen Kendle's full feature on Wayzgoose in the Arts section on at weeklyvolcano.com.

2. The Tacoma Glassblowing Studio knows how to step up when there are people in need. Members of the Studio are headed to Romania this summer to run a camp for orphaned kids. ... We'll let that sink in for a second. ... Today, from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. TGS will host a glass sale AND bake sale to raise money for the camp. So forget your diet for one day. Heck, skip dinner and order a bag full of baked goods. Fundraising never tasted so sweet.

3. There is still time left to celebrate your inner poet as part of National Poetry Month. Tacoma Poet Laureate Josie Emmons Turner will be at the Museum of Glass from 1-2 p.m. to celebrate your poetry and to actually decorate it.

4. Years of doodling and daydreaming in class. Years of passing elaborately decorated notes. Even those years of junior-high band concerts and high-school musicals. This has been your child's (or your neighbor's kid or those little twerps down the street) artistic education. And now it's paying off. Well, maybe just for one 14-year-old Gig Harbor resident. Young wildlife artist Tova Beck has been painting pictures of birds since age 4 after the feathered ones at the Tacoma Nature Center blew her away. Over the years, she's drawn hundreds and won numerous honors and awards for her art. With the help of mom Mimmi, Tova published a book of her works title The Girl Who Loved to Paint Birds - which is available at Amazon.com - and will sign the awesome thing from 1-3 as part of the Earth Day Extravaganza at the Tacoma Nature Center.

5. Illumni Men's Chorale, Seattle's innovative new choral group, presents "Music of Russia," a program of all Russian music rarely heard in the United States featuring folk music, soldier songs and music of the Orthodox tradition at 8 p.m. inside Lagerquist Hall on the PLU Campus. Internationally-known bosso-profundo Glenn Miller will be in the house.

LINK: More arts and entertainment events in the South Sound

LINK: Live music and DJs in the South Sound

LINK: South Sound happy hours

WE SCENE IT >>>

Thankfully Bill "Kahuna" Henderson, guitarist for Tacoma's Girl Trouble, had a crate full of rockin' tunes to spin last night at The New Frontier Lounge. The Squirt reunion show with openers Resident Kings didn't begin anywhere close to the posted 9 p.m. start time.

That said, once the Resident Kings finally launched into its set, time was all but forgotten.

Resident Kings from Olympia intertwined guitar lines, glittering and razor-edged, produces an engrossing blend of melodic heavy rock. Coupled with lead singer Jimmi Davies's punk-powered energy, and the quintet leaves the indie-rock kids struck dumb and the punk kids wondering why all their CDs at home sound like crap. Davies, along with Entwistle-ish Tim Brown, lead guitarist Michael Esparza, rhythm guitarist Brian Sparhawk and drummer Ryan Mungia recall the rock glory days of Fugazi, Sunny Day Real Estate and U.F.O. - while sounding like none of 'em. What, all-out rock and roll that's neither unironic nor needlessly downcast? We'd almost forgotten such a thing exists.

After Public Information Officer for the Pierce County Sheriff's Department Ed Troyer introduced Squirt - Dick Rossetti, Eric "The Swede" Olson, Electric Vee Vee Roark with drummer Geoff Reading - the reunited Tacoma band from the ‘90s rocked those who once signed, performed with and sang along with the band, as well as a few celebrities and the curious who came to see if Rossetti would do or say something crazy.

The experience wasn't so different than hanging out in a basement while your old friends jam - only it was in a very large basement that sells alcohol. For all the cognitive dissonance of seeing middle-aged men tear through songs they wrote when they were 19, Tacoma rock band reunions are a helluva lot of fun.

WHAT WE HAVE FOUND TODAY >>>

1. It all goes back to history. Everything. Everything goes back to history. There is nothing but history. These words are becoming history as you read them. Even you, some day, will be history. Perhaps you will be a blip; perhaps you will be a chapter. Perhaps your name will become a buzzword, like Reaganomics or Machiavellian. Perhaps. Perhaps you will ramble with no purpose. Perhaps you will wax poetic to the point of nausea. Perhaps you will shove extra food from the buffet into your purse when no one is looking. Perhaps. Perhaps you'll enjoy history Saturday when the best comedians from years and years of the Seattle International Comedy Competitions gather on the Pantages Theater for a night of laughs at 7:30 p.m. Former Comedy Competition champions Darryl Lenox (1999) and Damonde Tschritter (2006) will anchor the night. Armchair philosopher Lenox is one of the best comics to ever come out of Vancouver. OK, he's American, but he lived 14 years in the city, reached a calm on stage and honed his act with his hilarious American take on Canada and Canadians. Although storyteller comedian, actor and writer Tschritter has been known to say he's more like the guy who hangs around your kitchen table telling stories than a stand-up comedian, he was the first Canadian to win the Seattle competition. Perhaps you should attend.

2. Dude, pain is just weakness leaving the body. It's no reason to not do anything. Shoo, weakness, shoo. Go away. It's time to skip that early morning nap and start creating some pain for yourself. That's right - five kilometers of pain. It's the Ruston Way 5K, beginning at 10 a.m. It's said to be one of the flattest, fastest 5K runs in the universe. Elite runners are signed up. But forget about the fact that it celebrates the re-opening of the new and proved Ruston Way; you can reminisce about the demolished tunnel later. Concentrate on your five kilometers of pain. Ignore the pre-run ribbon cutting with dignitaries at 9:15 a.m. Ignore the stunning views of the Puget Sound, Mt. Rainier, the Cascades and the Olympic Mountains. Pain, pain, pain. Best of all, you'll be done in time for your noon nap.

3. Traver Gallery in Tacoma is the only United States venue to host Engaging with Glass: A Survey of Contemporary Glass Art, the first comprehensive survey of Irish glass art in over a decade. The exhibition brings together a broad spectrum of work in glass, ranging from beautifully executed decorative objects to conceptual installation pieces incorporating video elements. The exhibit opens today with a reception from 5-7 p.m.

4. You totally have the opportunity to get lei'd tonight (sorry, we couldn't help ourselves). The annual University of Puget Sound's Hui O Hawai`i student club's Spring Lu'au with its exotic Polynesian food and colorful entertainment hits the campus. The festivities begin with a 5 p.m. dinner offering kalua pig, huli huli chicken, lomi lomi salmon, macaroni salad, poi, chicken long rice, haupia, pineapple and a vegan dish pineapple stir fry in the Wheelock Student Center. At 7 p.m., the crowd will head to the memorial Field House for the band Na Leo O Hawai`I and around a dozen dances from cultures including Hawaiian, Tahitian, Samoan, and Maori, as well as ritual face-painting, grass skirts, the malo (loincloth) and colorful island dresses. Aloha.

5. Beginning at 6 p.m. Hell's Kitchen will host a benefit show for Hang Huong - who was hit by a car - featuring a burlesque show, raffle prizes and the musical stylings of Unhailoed, Psychonaut Deathtrip, LB, Reptile Eruption, Devils of Louden and Phasers On Kill.

PLUS: More events listed in our Weekend Hustle

LINK: More arts and entertainment events in the South Sound

LINK: Live music and DJs in the South Sound

LINK: South Sound happy hours

LIVE MUSIC TONIGHT IN THE SOUTH SOUND >>>

C.I. Shenanigans Tacoma - Northend. James Coates. 7 pm.

The Conquering Lion Tacoma - South. High Ceiling, Dub Lounge International. 8 pm. $25.

Hell's Kitchen Tacoma - Downtown. Jay Barz, Motamouth Jones, Chris Crazie, John Crown, From Heros to Legends. All Ages. 5 pm. $5. Psycho Rehab, Sanction VIII, Demon Dogs, Pukesnake. 9:30 pm. $5.

Le Voyeur Café and Lounge Olympia - Downtown. Lawless Birthday Bash, with AKA featuring Nathalie, Hollywood Kill Krew, Pawz One, Double B. 9 pm. NC.

Louie G's Pizzeria Fife. VIII Days Clean. All Ages. 8 pm.

Mandolin Cafe Tacoma - Central. The Dukes Of Jazz. All Ages. 6 pm.

The New Frontier Lounge Tacoma - Dome District. Squirt, Resident Kings, DJ Kahuna. 9 pm.

• A very long time ago I was on the radio. I used to rig contests so folks in Tacoma would win - I felt I owed them something. Tacoma was the first place to embrace my early '90s rock outfit Squirt. We didn't make it big or anything, but Tacomans were the first to understand, and that was huge for nobodies. Squirt had many ties to Tacoma. Our guitar player Eric "The Swede" Olson was from Tacoma. Lem Durant, the guy that booked Prosito (before it was The Central and the first Hell's Kitchen) was the first person to ever approach us for a gig. Squirt's first release on a compact disc (mind you getting a CD made in '93 cost a deep left nut) was courtesy of 253 label Wrecking Ball. And the first "cool" band to embrace/befriend us was Girl Trouble. It was different. Tacomans were ... nice. We were an odd lot. Read guest writer Dick Rossetti's full story on his band Squirt in the Music section at weeklyvolcano.com. – Dick Rossetti

The Olympia Ballroom Olympia. Polyrhythmics, Snarky Puppy. All Ages. 9 pm.

• Just in time to celebrate 4/20, Andyinoly Productions brings in another stellar show. This time at the Olympia Ballroom, and all-ages, Polyrythmics will be keeping heads happy with their funky, world-beat music. According to dictionary.com, polyrhythm is the simultaneous occurrence of sharply contrasting rhythms within a composition. According to me, (and thousands of fans,) Polyrythmics is the simultaneous occurrence of badassness. This eight-piece ensemble jams long and hard, with interesting twists and tweaks to keep the mind engaged and the body moving. From the band's webpage, "Polyrhythmics have quickly gained notoriety playing to packed clubs and festival crowds all over the Northwest. Their self-titled and now sold-out EP released in 2010 has been charting on radio playlists up and down the West Coast." Snarky Puppy will also play this funky 4/20 party. Featuring members of Snoop Dogg's and Erykah Badu's band, this band hits the same fusion, international vibe as Polyrythmics. So light one up, cruise to the Olympia Ballroom and let this incredible line-up do the rest. – Nikki Talotta
  

Stonegate Pizza Tacoma - South. Jerry Miller Jam. 9 pm. NC.

Tempest Lounge Tacoma - Hilltop. Nick Deonigi. 7:30 pm. NC.

Traditions Cafe and World Folk Art Olympia - Downtown. Emma's Revolution. All Ages. 8 pm. $12-$17.

Uncle Sam's American Bar & Grill Spanaway. Stony Balony, Vigilante Justice, Inebriator, Ranchero. 9 pm.

Louie G's Pizzeria Fife. VIII Days Clean. All Ages. 8 pm.

LINK: More live music in the South Sound